FIA summons Shaukat Tarin for investigation into Jhagra audio leak

• FIA asks Tarin to appear before it on September 21 at 10am.
• "If you fail to appear, it will mean you have nothing to say in your defence," FIA notice states.
• Tarin called Jhagra to tell IMF to withdraw from commitment for surplus Pakistan budget.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Tuesday served a call-up notice to former finance minister Shaukat Tarin, summoning him for an investigation into his call with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Minister Taimoor Saleem Jhagra to write a letter to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

FIA has asked the PTI leader to appear before it tomorrow (September 21) at 10:00am.

"If you fail to appear, it will mean you have nothing to say in your defence," the notice stated.

Last month, ahead of IMF’s board meeting to approve Pakistan’s bailout package, the PTI leader made telephone calls to Punjab and KP finance ministers asking them to write letters to the IMF withdrawing from the commitment for the surplus budget.

The audio leaks endorsed the view that a letter written by the KP finance minister to Miftah Ismail in August threatening to withdraw from the IMF commitment was a deliberate effort to sabotage the government’s efforts to stabilise the economy.

In the leaked audio, Shaukat Tarin can be heard asking Jhagra if he had written the letter.

“I am on the way. I have the previous letter. I will send the letter to you after drafting it,” the KP finance minister had replied.

Tarin directed Jhagra that the key point of his letter should be the flood devastation in the province.

“First point [of the letter] would be that we need huge financial aid for restoration of infrastructure and rehabilitation of flood affectees,” Tarin told the KP finance minister, adding that he has already briefed Punjab’s Finance Minister Muhammad Mohsin Khan Leghari about it.

“By the way, this is a blackmailing tactic,” he admitted, adding that nobody gives money.